A NEW CNN POLL ASKED WHO AMERICANS ADMIRE MOST — THE GAP IS HARD TO MISS

Obama Leads the National Poll

The survey found 30% of Americans named Obama when asked, in an open-ended question, which president in U.S. history they most admire, compared with 19% who selected Trump.

Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan each received 9%, followed by John F. Kennedy at 6% and George Washington at 5%, according to the nationwide survey.

The poll also found that nearly 10% of respondents either said they did not admire any president or declined to provide an opinion when answering the question.

Because respondents supplied answers without choosing from a fixed list, the results measure which presidents people spontaneously associate with admiration rather than approval of current political performance.

A Strong Partisan Divide

Obama's standing was particularly pronounced among Democrats. Sixty-four percent of Democratic respondents named him as the president they most admired, while other individual choices remained in single digits.

Among Republicans, the pattern was different: 53% named Trump as the president they most admired, followed by Reagan at 18%, Lincoln at 8%, and Kennedy and Washington at 5%.

The figures show that the poll's national result does not represent a consensus across party groups, with respondents' choices varying substantially according to partisan identification.

The survey also found Obama receiving support beyond the Democratic base, although his favorability among Republicans remained considerably lower than among Democrats and independents.

Obama’s Broader Favorability

Separately, 57% of Americans expressed a favorable opinion of Obama, according to the same CNN- survey, compared with 34% for Trump and 30% for Joe Biden.

Obama's favorable rating was also higher among independents than those recorded for Trump or Biden, according to the survey conducted nationwide during May and early June.

The poll found George W. Bush with 42% favorable and 33% unfavorable ratings, while opinions of Bill Clinton were roughly divided among Americans surveyed.

CNN's analysis noted that former presidents' reputations can change over time, meaning current polling captures contemporary attitudes rather than establishing a definitive historical judgment about presidential legacies.

A Changing View of Obama’s Legacy

The findings arrived as Obama's presidential center opened in Chicago, giving renewed national attention to his presidency, political legacy and continuing influence within the Democratic Party.

CNN's analysis also highlighted changing public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature domestic legislation, which now receives more favorable ratings than it did years earlier.

The survey found the Affordable Care Act with a net favorability rating of plus 23 percentage points, compared with a slightly negative rating in CNN polling conducted a decade earlier.

The results also illustrate a generational shift, with younger Americans increasingly having little personal memory of presidents who served before Obama, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

How the Poll Was Conducted

conducted the survey for CNN among 2,480 adults nationwide between May 7 and May 31, using a combination of online and telephone interviews.

The sample was drawn from address-based and random-digit-dial sources, with respondents contacted through mail, telephone or text as part of the polling process.

For the full sample, reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points, meaning individual results carry normal statistical uncertainty.

The poll does not determine which president was objectively the most successful or influential; it records whom Americans themselves named when asked about presidential admiration at this particular point in time.